I am looking for the "Yang family 40 chapters" in Chinese, preferably already as a text, that can be copied and pasted. My own search on the internet didn't turn out anything, because I do not know the exact Chinese title of the text. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I did a search on 太極拳老譜. Here's a link that appears to have all of the texts. By the way, while these are conventionally called the "forty chapters," they actually number 32. My print sources of these texts are mostly in traditional characters, but this site has them in simplified characters. I can't vouch for the accuracy, but have a look:

thank you very much. That's what I was hoping for. In the meantime I have found this link with a scanned copy of Wu Gongzao's text: http://210.240.212.25/taichi95/data2_1_ ... r=095B00APSo, I will be able to check, whether the characters on the website you posted are correct.

I am glad I have found this forum and I am looking forward to ask questions and discuss the old texts.

Yes, that’s the same material as the material known as the Yang Forty Chapters. You can read a synopsis of how the material gradually made its way into the public in Douglas Wile’s book, Lost T’ai-chi Classics from the Late Ch’ing Dynasty. (1996, Suny Press, pp. 57-61)

The texts first were published in Wu Gongzao’s 1985 republication of his 1935 book, Taijiquan jiangyi, as a color photocopy of the manuscript in Wu Jianquan’s hand, with an explanation that the texts were transmitted to Wu from Yang Banhou. The 1985 book is sometimes known as the Gold Book, and was published by the Wu family in Hong Kong. In 2006, the Wu family published an English translation by Doug Woolidge, which also includes a down-sized color photo-reproduction of the manuscript. In 1993, another handwritten manuscript version was reproduced as a photocopy in Yang Zhenji’s book, Yang Chengfu Shi Taijiquan. Yang Zhenji wrote that the manuscript had been entrusted to him by his mother in 1961. It’s the same material, in the same order, but in a different hand. The material also appears in typeset form in Yang Zhenduo's 1997 book, Yang Shi Taiji.

The first full English translation of the Yang Forty appeared in Douglas Wile’s Lost T’ai-chi Classics. Yang Jwing-ming published his translations of the Yang Forty, among other Yang texts, in his 2001 book, Tai Chi Secrets of the Yang Style. Both of these books include the Chinese texts in addition to the translations.

Thanks for the reply. I do not have that many taichi book but I have a copy of the book which is first published in 1980 May Hong Kong, complete with with all the smudges too. It has Wu Gong Yi photo of him in the 108 postures, names/sequent of postures and 108 Dao and 108 Jian. It was given to me by my taichi and qigong sifu. All in Chinese. It has also pages of material in typeset. I have heard of the Gold book but have no idea this is the one and same as Yang's 40 Chapters as well.